


The Only Dependable Thing

by demishock



Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-06
Updated: 2010-04-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 11:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8370853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demishock/pseuds/demishock
Summary: "The only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty." A series of fics revolving around Amarant Coral.  Originally posted on the 100 themes challenge LJ community, madain-sari.





	1. Passive Aggressive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amarant has to wonder what Zidane's thinking, letting two people with the same abilities follow him around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted these to madain-sari on LJ years ago but never actually consolidated them anywhere, so here they are. Obviously I didn't get very far into the 100 prompts, haha. But FFIX is my favorite video game of all time, and Amarant rarely gets any love...
> 
> **Warnings:** A few swears; nothing major. Also, this is the first FFIX fic I ever wrote.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 4\. White Magic  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** Eiko, Dagger, Zidane, Vivi  
>  **Timeline:** Shortly after Amarant joins the party, before the confrontation with Kuja at the Iifa Tree.
> 
> Thanks go to snarechan for the title.

The first time Amarant felt white magic, he thought he was being attacked. He hadn't reacted outwardly; he wasn't about to show the little group of misfits he was unfortunately traveling with that something had startled him. He'd simply waited, senses on high alert, for the magic-wielding coward to give away his location so he could lob a Pinwheel at his face. Instead, all he got was a scolding from a six-year-old girl.

"Hey! You could at least say 'thank you,' you know," the smaller – and louder – of the two Summoners admonished him, her hands fisted on her hips.

He gave a non-committal grunt, still trying – without moving anything but his eyes – to locate the caster.

Eiko stomped her foot, glaring up (and up) at him.

"I mean it! Don't ignore me! I didn't _have_ to heal that gash on your arm!"

That gave him pause, and he glanced at his arm for confirmation. Actually, yeah, that'd been bleeding pretty profusely a few moments ago. The last Griffin they'd fought had gotten him good with one of its talons as he'd made a lunge for its stomach. Now, all that was left was dried blood; the skin beneath was good as new. Come to think of it, all the familiar aches of a hard-fought battle were curiously absent.

He looked between his arm and the brat several times, his continued silence only making her madder.

"Are guys _always_ this rude, Dagger?" she asked, whirling on the princess, who looked rather uncomfortable at having been dragged into their little one-sided confrontation.

"Not always," she answered, ever the diplomat.

Amarant went on examining his arm. Of course, he'd heard of white magic before. He just had never been on the receiving end of it; his job didn't exactly cause many people to want to _heal_ him, after all. It was certainly convenient, he noted blandly. No potions. No bandages. No using his chakra to get the healing process to go faster. Just some weird, invasive, tingling feeling – like having dry sand dumped on him – and now his arm was fixed.

He filed that one away in his head before finally turning his attention back to the obnoxious little girl.

"You both do that?" he asked, obviously startling the lot of them as they gave a collective jump.

"Pardon?" Dagger asked.

"The brat and you – you both have healing magic?"

"Well... yes," she answered.

"So you're both Summoners, and you both know white magic... what's the point?"

Dagger looked confused, but Eiko jumped up and down, clearly affronted.

"What are you trying to say?!" she snapped.

"That it's pointless – even if you go through the already-useless exercise of trying to be a 'team' – for two members of the same group to have the same abilities. It's overkill."

"...You are soooooo mean!" Eiko started, obviously ready to make his ears bleed with another tirade, but Zidane finally took it upon himself to step in.

"They're both equally talented," he said. "And they're not always both doing the same thing. Just now, when we were fighting our way across the plains, Dagger was Summoning and Eiko was healing. Sometimes it's the other way around."

"Summoning uses a lot of magic," Vivi added timidly, "so it'd be hard to do that and heal at the same time, I think..."

Amarant rolled his eyes, though the others couldn't see that.

"So basically, one is useless without the other," he reiterated.

Dagger turned scarlet.

"That's not it at all!" she protested.

"Yeah," Zidane started, "we did perfectly fine before Eiko joined us—"

"HEY!"

"—but we're doing even better _with_ her—"

"That's more like it!"

"—and that's why they're both equally important," he concluded, tail twitching agitatedly.

Amarant shook his head; the whole lot of them was impossible. How hard a concept was it to understand? You couldn't make up for individual weaknesses by filling the gaps with other people. The more weak links in the chain, the more likely it was to break. It was pretty damn simple, as far as he was concerned.

"I still say that it's pointless."

Eiko glared at him haughtily.

"We'll see how pointless it is the next time some monster decides to use your arm as a scratching post!"

She grabbed Vivi's hand and dragged him toward the cliffs.

"H-hey!"

"C'mon; the view up here is really pretty!"

Their argument trailed off as they fell out of earshot.

Zidane glanced nervously between Dagger and Amarant, the former of whom looked like she was trying hard to keep her thoughts inside her head rather than voicing them aloud.

"You got a bone to pick with me?" Amarant challenged. "Come on, Princess; don't be shy."

She straightened into her most dignified-looking posture, which made Zidane wince and edge backwards.

"A person can't just judge another's worth! _Especially_ not simply from their prowess in battle," she said, her anger well-reigned-in. "People have all sorts of qualities in just their personalities. I'm not going to ask you to try to appreciate all of our quirks, but I must ask that you refrain from calling any of us 'useless' or our abilities 'pointless.'"

Zidane muttered something under his breath that sounded distinctly like, "And now she's gone all regal on us..." which the girl pointedly ignored, her entire attention focused on Amarant.

Amarant, for his part, came out of his habitual slouch, towering over her at his full height. He crossed his arms.

"Or what? You going to knock me upside the head with your magic wand?"

This time, the corners of Dagger's mouth turned upwards in a very devious smile.

"No," she said, feigning cheerfulness, "but Ramuh might."

And she turned on her heel and left, taking their cooking pot with her in the direction of water.

Amarant and Zidane were left standing in a very awkward silence.

"...I could take that old man," Amarant said finally.

Zidane snorted.

"Yeah, okay; he's only like ten of me, _Tranced_. But okay."

Amarant's only reply was an irritated grunt.

"You really shouldn't piss-off the white mages," Zidane said. "Especially Dagger; she's been known to do some real nasty things to people via their food. Just so you know."

The shit-eating grin on the monkey's face was enough to make Amarant's skin crawl. His hand twitched toward the claws on his belt, and Zidane took off like his tail was on fire, running in the direction Dagger had gone.

Amarant made a mental note to procure his own meals after that.


	2. The Road Untraveled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amarant asks why the group mentions Cleyra all the time. Freya isn't particularly pleased with his reaction to the answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings:** Minor swearing.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 22\. Cleyra  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** Freya, Zidane  
>  **Timeline:** Could take place any time after both Amarant and Freya are in the party. I didn't have a particular scene in mind.

Amarant had never been to Cleyra. He had a working knowledge of where on the continent it was located, and he knew that the people who lived there were originally from Burmecia, but he'd never had any reason to go there. Actually, from what little he knew about the place, the whole idea was that people weren't _supposed_ to go there; hence the magic sandstorm.

Zidane and the others sure liked to bring it up in conversation a lot, though. Sometime prior to his joining up with them – which he was still in the process of regretting – they must have gone there for some reason. Gods knew Amarant couldn't figure it out from listening to them. It seemed like a subject they usually brought up during times of failure and depression. Amarant determined that this meant that Cleyra was a pretty lousy place and he wasn't missing much by not going there.

"I know he was acting under Brahne's will at the time, but every time Dagger summons Odin, all I can think of is Cleyra," Freya was saying to Zidane. Amarant was sitting in the shade off to one side, listening to their conversation while they put up one of the party's tents. The others had scattered off to practice spells or gather food or whatever trivial nonsense was on the agenda for the evening.

"Well, we need the extra firepower sometimes, y'know?" Zidane said, apparently trying to console her.

"I know. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"That's your tongue, Rat." Amarant couldn't resist the shot, and Freya gave him a dirty look.

"Well, we've had a much better track record since then," Zidane went on, apparently trying to stay on topic. "I mean, Lindblum and Alexandria are both a mess right now, but they're still on their feet..."

Amarant noticed that he very pointedly hadn't mentioned Burmecia.

"This Cleyra place must have been one hell of a shithole, the way you people talk about it," Amarant butted in again.

"What do you mean?" Freya asked tersely. It seemed that it was one of her more touchy subjects.

"You guys spit the name like it's cursed. I thought it was supposed to be populated by the same people as your rainy-as-hell hometown."

"It was," Zidane said. “Just..."

"We were unable to stop Brahne and Kuja from destroying it."

Amarant snickered.

"So it's not that it was a bad place. It's just that you're sore because you lost."

Freya clenched her fists, and Zidane rushed in, trying to stop the impending argument.

"We didn't just lose," he said darkly. "The entire village is gone. Alexandria and Lindblum, at least, are still standing, but Cleyra got completely decimated. Brahne summoned Odin and burned it to the ground, and we couldn't do a thing. We had no idea she had the Eidolons at her disposal."

"Wasn't Cleyra a giant tree?" Amarant asked, remembering.

"Yeah... why?"

"No wonder it fried."

"You're horrible." Freya's voice was flat.

"They probably would have been fine if the sandstorm hadn't stopped all of a sudden. I still don't get why it did..." Zidane said pensively.

"Odin's power was greater than the harp's stone," Freya said, sounding utterly dismal now.

"So basically, they were relying on a barrier that reacted to the opposing force's strength?" Amarant asked. “And when it sensed something _stronger_ than it, it failed?"

He let the implication of his words hang. Neither the rat nor the monkey answered. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Didn't they have an army or something?"

"The Cleyrans left Burmecia because they did not believe it wise to pursue the arts of war," Freya informed him. "They were pacifists."

"Pacifists don't tend to live very long anyway," Amarant said. "If you're not willing to defend your own ass, then you're just asking to get it kicked."

"They didn't _deserve_ to die!" Freya said furiously.

"Noooobody's saying they did," Zidane said hurriedly. "That's not what you're saying, right?" he added, shooting Amarant a questioning look.

"I'm saying it's way too easy to take advantage of a group of people who won't fight back."

"Which is not the same as saying they deserved it," Zidane said with finality, obviously still trying to keep the peace.

The three of them lapsed into silence as the remaining members of the group began filtering back to the campsite, and the conversation turned to what they should do about dinner. Amarant sat back and retook his role as observer, mulling over his newfound information.

Amarant had never been to Cleyra. Apparently, he never would be.  



	3. Playing Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amarant didn't go to Treno for the card tournament, but that doesn't mean he didn't play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings:** Minor swearing.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 81\. Cards  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** Vivi, Freya  
>  **Timeline:** Takes place just after the "Lessons of Life" ATE in which Amarant tells Freya about his first meeting with Zidane.
> 
> For added effect, I recommend listening to "Quad Mist" on the official soundtrack. ;)

Growing up in Treno, it was relatively impossible not to have learned to play at least the most basic game of Tetra Master. The card game battles were as much a staple of the city as its perpetual night. Tournaments aside, the peasants and nobles alike could be found playing the game – never with each other, of course – at any given time, in alleys, bars, mansions, and every conceivable place in between.

Naturally, Amarant was damned good at the game. It had served as a meal ticket in between jobs on many more occasions than he cared to think about. He didn't even have to cheat, although playing (mostly) sober against a bunch of drunks was a kind of cheating in and of itself. It certainly helped his good fortune that his opponents had a tendency to be so far gone that they didn't realize they were playing against a guy whose picture was tacked to the wall with a hefty price-tag attached.

Of course, just because he was good at it didn't mean he wanted to spend every waking moment playing it. When Zidane had asked them all to Treno for the tournament, Amarant had briefly entertained the idea of entering just to beat Zidane at it, but he ultimately decided against it; it'd be a shallow victory anyway. What he wanted to beat Zidane at was combat, not cards.

So he'd spent the evening – the only reason he knew it was evening was because that's what it'd been when they'd left Alexandria – wandering aimlessly around the city, remembering things he really would rather not remember and cursing himself the whole time for even coming back to this gods-forsaken place. Currently, he was standing outside of King's mansion, severely regretting having just told the rat chick about his first encounter with Zidane. He had no idea why he'd said any of it aloud; he shouldn't have and he damn well knew it.

At times like this, he was thoroughly convinced that Zidane had let him live back in Madain Sari just so he could observe the resulting torment.

He turned away from the water, fully intent on getting himself to the nearest bar, only to step backwards as he almost tripped over the little black mage standing behind him.

"Yikes!" Vivi yelped, jumping backwards himself.

Amarant regarded him in silence as he adjusted his hat. Vivi looked up at him cautiously, but didn't say anything. Amarant shifted, crossing his arms.

"You need something?" he asked, hoping the jumpy little mage would be too intimidated to try to pursue any kind of conversation.

"N-Not really," Vivi said hesitantly.

Well, that was good enough for Amarant. He moved to walk around him.

"Um... do you play Tetra Master?" the kid blurted out as he passed.

Amarant paused.

"Yeah; why?"

"W-Would you play against me?"

Amarant blinked, not sure he'd heard correctly.

"Why me?"

Vivi fidgeted.

"Everyone else who does seems to be playing in the tournament... I don't think I'm good enough for that, yet, though. I just wanted to play a match for fun..."

Amarant raised an eyebrow; he wasn't sure where the kid had gotten the idea that he was the 'fun' sort, but he hoped it wasn't a notion that was going to stick. Still, the kid looked pretty pitiful...

He couldn't believe he was passing up a hard drink to play cards with a nine-year-old.

He sat down cross-legged on the stonework, pulling his deck out of his vest by way of an answer.

Vivi's eyes seemed to glow a bit brighter.

"R-Really? Thanks!" he said, kneeling down and digging his cards and a bit of chalk out of his coat pocket. "How do you want the board...?"

Amarant shrugged.

"Do what you want."

As Amarant picked out his five cards, Vivi set to drawing out the grid, filling in a few of the spaces to make it a bit more challenging. He sat back, studying it for a moment, then nodded in satisfaction, returning the chalk to his pocket. He selected five cards of his own.

"Ready."

Amarant flipped a coin; Vivi called 'heads' and won the toss. He played a Sand Golem card in the upper left corner – one arrow down, and one facing right.

Amarant set a Blazer Beetle beneath it, did the math, and captured it. Vivi studied his hand briefly, then played Zemzelett to the right of his original Sand Golem, reclaiming it and then taking Blazer Beetle by combo. The way Vivi had drawn the board, there was only one place left open in that section to play his next card, and with no arrows facing it, a combo was impossible. Grumbling, Amarant played Cerberus, with one arrow on each corner, capturing Sand Golem but nothing else.

Vivi 'hmm'ed to himself before playing a second Zemzelett, this time in the bottom right corner. It was well defended, with an arrow facing out in every open direction. Amarant, not about to let the kid get back the two cards he'd reclaimed, placed his Ogre on the diagonal between his own Cerberus and the new Zemzelett. The Ogre had no arrow facing Cerberus, but it did have one facing Vivi's card, and he snagged it, securing all four across the diagonal.

Vivi seemed flustered as he played his next card, a Hedgehog Pie, diagonally to the left of Amarant's Ogre. There were no opposing arrows, so Vivi took the Ogre without contest. Amarant responded immediately by playing Tantarian in the bottom left corner. Its right-pointing arrow lined up with Hedgehog Pie's left-facing one, and a quick calculation later, it and the Ogre were back in his possession.

They each had one card left. Vivi carefully set his down above his second Zemzelett; the Grand Dragon took it and the Ogre once again, giving Vivi a total of five cards in his control. If he could flip one of those five cards, Amarant would win.

Amarant studied the board, then studied the one card left to him. Scowling deeply, he played it – Antlion – beneath the Ogre card. The only arrow pointing at an adjacent card was pointing towards one he already had for himself.

Stalemate.

It had been a short game, since neither of them had spoken, and neither one of them had won, but Amarant felt a vague sense of satisfaction at having faced an opponent that wasn't a total pushover, for once.

"O-Oh," Vivi stuttered. "Um... it looks like we tied..."

"Not bad," Amarant said.

"I haven't been playing for very long," Vivi admitted.

Amarant wasn't sure what it was about the kid that made him feel like he ought to be encouraging him. He was about as different from the purple-haired Summoner brat as humanly possible. Amarant wasn't fond of kids in the slightest, and he certainly had no real interest in any of Zidane's little posse, but he had to admit, at least to himself, that the black mage was probably the one who got on his nerves the least.

"You probably could have entered the tournament if you wanted to."

"Y-You think so?" Vivi asked, sounding surprised.

Amarant nodded.

"It's probably too late to register for this one..."

"They have one every three months," Amarant said, shrugging.

Vivi looked like he wanted to say something else, but they were suddenly interrupted as Freya rushed up the steps.

"Thank goodness you're both here – we have to leave!" she said breathlessly.

"W-What happened?!" Vivi asked, scooping up his cards and pocketing them. Amarant did the same, then got to his feet.

"It's Eiko; she says that pet Moogle of hers heard that something terrible is going on back in Alexandria."

“Hmph. So we're off to the rescue, then?" Amarant asked.

"That's the long and short of it," Freya said. "The regent of Lindblum has an airship here that runs without Mist. We'll be flying back; it should be faster than the gargant."

"I hope Dagger's okay," Vivi fretted, adjusting his hat again.

"The sooner we get there, the sooner we can make sure of that," Freya said firmly. "Let's go."

They followed Freya to where the airship was waiting, boarding quickly as Zidane made sure everyone was there.

"We're all accounted for," he told the woman at the helm. "Let's see this thing fly!"

Amarant was puzzled as to why, if Zidane was so bent up over the princess as he seemed to be, he hadn't already run halfway back to Alexandria by now, instead of waiting to assemble the entire group. It was ludicrous, just like every other move that the thief made. He didn't have much time to think it over, though, because a moment later, Freya had approached him again.

"Back for more?" he asked darkly, daring her to continue laughing at him over their earlier conversation.

"Were you playing cards with Vivi?" she asked, dodging his question entirely.

Amarant grimaced.

"So what if I was?"

"I didn't interrupt your game, I hope."

"We were finished."

"I see."

The airship gave a great lurch and lifted off from the ground, making an appalling amount of noise as it did so. Freya grabbed onto the rail to keep her balance as the floor began to shake.

"Well, this will certainly be enjoyable," she muttered, then added above the noise, “That was quite uncharacteristically generous of you."

"What was?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Playing cards with Vivi."

Amarant shrugged.

"He issued a challenge; I took it. Generosity had nothing to do with it."

Freya didn’t look like she believed that for a moment, but she simply smirked knowingly at him without saying another word. When the ship leveled out a bit, she moved to go speak with Zidane, leaving Amarant to his thoughts once again.

Looking around at the company he was keeping and musing on the events of the past day, Amarant wasn't sure _what_ he believed anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for the record, I am very rusty at Tetra Master, and there was no way I was going to do out the crazy hexadecimal math that the computer does to determine who wins at battles; I went with stronger cards winning over weaker cards, for simplicity's sake. Hopefully in doing so I've not managed to offend anyone's card-gaming sensibilities. ;) I also hope I didn't bore anyone by actually trying to write the whole thing out...
> 
> For anyone who might have been having a difficult time envisioning it, the chart below (which will hopefully not get destroyed by formatting issues) was what I was working off of when I was writing the card battle out. The blank one was courtesy of Trifthen's Tetra Master FAQ over at gamefaqs and was used without permission.
> 
> This fic also assumes that Vivi wandered around Treno some more between visiting Quan's Dwelling and leaving for Alexandria.


	4. Spare Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the heat of battle, you use whatever weapons are available to you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's pretty short compared to the others. I was shooting for it to be a bit comical, without being total crack. Hopefully I pulled it off...?
> 
>  **Warnings:** Minor swearing.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 70\. Gil  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** All eight party members appear.  
>  **Timeline:** Could take place during any point in the game that the party can fight Grand Dragons and Amarant has learned the title skill.

A good battle was generally measured by how much of a match one's opponent was to oneself, in Amarant's book. This day had been particularly tiring, and the group was running out of steam after hours of consecutive battles. The mages' mana was dwindling, and he and the other heavy-hitters were beaten bloody.

Fighting Grand Dragons really sucked when you were doing it all day. Even Amarant was sick of fighting for the time being. His claws were dealing crap for damage, having been dulled throughout the day by contact with so many dragon scales. Swords, daggers, spears, and claws alike were becoming equally useless. What had started out as a chain of very good battles by Amarant's standards had now become a very big pain in the ass.

They needed this beast to go down.

Amarant had long since gone through his own stock of projectiles, and he'd hurled every extra piece of weaponry the group had at some point or another. He was out of ammo.

Or so he thought.

Over the din of the fight and the frantic dodging of lightning bolts and poisoned claws, Amarant heard the jingling of coins. Chancing a look for its source, his eyes lit on the coin purse tied to Zidane's belt. It had come open slightly and was making noise with every move the thief made.

Amarant grinned.

He lunged toward Zidane, narrowly avoiding one of the dragon's beating wings, and grabbed a fistful of gil. Before Zidane could react, he'd taken aim, and he chucked the little metal disks at the monster's face.

His aim was perfect as always, and the creature shrieked bloody murder as the attack blinded it. Dodging its attacks became significantly easier, and a few well-placed blows from Steiner and Freya were all it took for the dragon to collapse, breathing its last.

Zidane immediately dashed over to the fallen dragon's head and started scooping up his precious coins.

"Why'd you have to throw the _money_?!" he whined. "How much did you take?"

"I don't know," Amarant said smugly, rubbing a thumb over a cut on the back of his arm. "I was a little preoccupied; I didn't bother to count."

"Aww, man..." And he continued his fruitless search.

"While not in the best of taste, I must admit that was quite effective," Steiner said grudgingly, watching Zidane with a mixture of amusement and disgust.

"I have to agree," Freya said, shaking her head as she leaned on her spear, catching her breath.

"Zidane looks like he's lost his favorite toy," Eiko added from her spot on the ground, her eyes following the tailed youth as he darted around the clearing.

"Need gil for yummy-yummies," Quina admonished. "Lucky that not all Zidane have."

"We also need it to repair all our equipment," Dagger lamented, picking at a splinter on her combat rod.

"You guys could help me look, y'know," Zidane pointed out, trying to lift the dragon's massive head so he could check underneath it.

"What made you think of throwing gil?" Vivi asked cautiously, and all eyes but Zidane's turned to Amarant, questioning.

Amarant shrugged.

"Metal's a good weapon; gil's made of metal," he said simply. "I improvised."

Zidane returned finally with a meager (and gory) collection, his tail drooping forlornly.

"It's all I could find," he said, sulking.

His friends all shook their heads and sighed.

"All this fuss over a little spare change," Amarant muttered. "Unbelievable."

Zidane scowled at him.

"Next time, use your own!"


	5. Through Hell and High Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's more than one way to get through Fossil Roo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really do like Lani, honest, even though it might not sound like it. Also, the pacing on this thing murdered me, so I apologize if it's choppy.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Minor swearing.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 12\. Water  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** Lani  
>  **Timeline:** Takes place immediately after the party fights Lani in Fossil Roo.

Lani stumbled into the excavation site and leaned heavily on her axe.

"You lost, didn't you?" Amarant said knowingly, not bothering to look up from sharpening his claws.

"Thanks to you!" she huffed. "It was four against one!"

"I believe your exact words were, ‘Leave it to me; I can handle them,'" Amarant said.

"Hmph. Tell me you at least figured out which way leads out of here. You don't look like you've moved since I left you."

Amarant gestured vaguely in the direction of one of the tunnels. He had, indeed, scouted the place out a bit. He'd found a man excavating who'd explained about gargants and water pumps. In short, nothing had changed since he'd been here last. He spoke none of this to Lani, though.

Lani replaced her axe into its holster and glared at him.

"The hell good are you, then?!" she snapped. "We're supposed to be partners on this job! With your reputation, I had high expectations, but it's a real wonder, you being so lazy..."

Amarant made no move to respond – or to do much of anything, really. Let the woman think what she wanted.

"And how come you even let me go after them? I thought you wanted to fight that oddball with the tail."

"Knew you'd lose," Amarant said simply, ignoring her as she clenched her fists, seething.

"Well anyway, now that I've gauged their strengths, we can come up with a plan of attack,"' she said.

"Now that you've 'gauged their strengths,' they know they're being followed, and if they're smart, they'll be watching their backs and prepping for the rematch," Amarant said, rolling his eyes.

"They don't know about you," Lani said crossly. "We've still got the element of surprise on our side."

"Relying on that is going to get you killed," Amarant said. Then he muttered, "Besides, I doubt anything surprises that guy..."

Lani stomped her foot impatiently.

"What are we still sitting here for? We've got to stay on their trail!"

Amarant refrained from making a crack about her needing him as a chaperone, climbing leisurely to his feet. He headed for the area he'd indicated earlier.

"Hope you like bugs," he told her over his shoulder.

"What?"

He ignored her, wandering into the tunnel.

"Hey! I asked you a question!" she hollered, giving chase.

Amarant had no interest in gargants one way or another. He didn't feel like going through the trouble of messing with water pumps like the excavator had instructed him, though, so without hesitation, he jumped off the ledge and into the thigh-high water.

"Are you crazy?!"

Lani had finally caught up, apparently.

"I'm not wading through that!" she practically shrieked, and Amarant decided that it was probably a miracle that the princess and her entourage hadn't ambushed them; they surely knew of their location, after all.

"It's either this or the gargant," Amarant informed her, jabbing a thumb at the over-large insect that was trudging along overhead.

Lani looked up just in time to see a second one lean down to snatch up some of the gargant grass growing to her left.

"GAH!!!" she screamed, throwing herself off the ledge. She landed on Amarant's shoulders, and his reflexes were all that kept him from plunging head-first into the water as she knocked him off-balance.

"Get the hell off of me," he snarled, trying to shrug her off.

"Hehe, this just might work!" Lani crowed, managing not to fall despite her precarious position. "You don't mind the muck – why don't you just carry me?"

"I didn't sign up for this," he spat, resisting the urge to run her through with his claws. Instead, he reached up behind him, grabbed her by her axe's holster, and dropped her unceremoniously – kicking and threatening to kill him – into the 'muck.'

"—hate you and the bitch that spawned you!" she sputtered as she resurfaced.

"Next time, work alone, then," he advised, then slogged off through the tunnel. He heard her splashing along behind him, growling curses under her breath.

She lapsed into silence for a while, save the occasional muttering to herself, during which time Amarant tried to pretend she wasn't there. If it weren't for _that guy_ , there was no way he'd be working with another person on this job. He didn't really care about Brahne's little spat with her daughter; actually, he could definitely see why the girl had run away from home. All he cared about was having a shot at facing that snot-nosed kid who'd duped him and put him out of a job when nobody else had ever come close to outsmarting him before. If he finished off the defective black mage and got the pendant back to Brahne, that was just a bonus.

"Hey, Red, do you even know where you're going?" Lani complained. Her voice had fallen a considerable distance behind him; the water was almost to her shoulders and she was having difficulty keeping up with him.

He smirked to himself and ignored her.

There was a noticeable increase in splashing, then, "You're lost, aren't you?! You're just walking blindly in a random direction—"

"Just shut up and follow me."

"Why should I?!"

"Because you've got no idea where you are."

"And you do?"

"Yes."

"How?! Nobody knows about this place!"

The hell they didn't. Where did she think the pumps came from, Amarant wondered. The gargants sure hadn't installed them. He swore, people were getting stupider by the day; half the people living on the Mist Continent seemed to have no idea that there was life beyond its shores.

Idiots, all of them. And he was stuck with a particularly fine specimen, unfortunately.

"—I can't even reach the bottom anymore!" Lani groused. "And don't the gargants breed in here?!"

Amarant tuned her out, continuing his slow but steady trudge through the water. It had, indeed, gotten deeper, but he was still tall enough to walk in it instead of swim.

Lani eventually had to keep quiet or risk inhaling the water, and so they went on for a good while in relative silence. The tunnel was a long one, and it branched off in several directions, but Amarant knew his way around. He'd been out here before, once upon a time, looking for better opponents on the far end. He'd found stronger Mist monsters, but better opponents, not so much.

It took him a moment to notice that the sound of Lani's pursuit had ceased. He glanced over his shoulder to see her clinging to the mossy stone on one side of the tunnel.

"Hey, um..." she said, sounding out of breath. "We've been at this for a few hours, at least; you think maybe we can take a break?"

Amarant turned around fully.

"We're more than halfway there; we sit here too long and we'll fall behind the princess."

"I know," Lani said. "But unlike you, I've been _swimming_ all this time, not _walking_."

Ah. So that was the problem – she'd worn herself out.

Amarant let out an irritated grunt and made his way over to her. Ignoring her protests, he lifted her under one arm, holding her head just out of the water, and started off again.

"This is completely undignified," she said angrily.

"You want to keep swimming? Be my guest."

"I should've taken my chances with the bugs."

When he didn't respond, she went on matter-of-factly, "You should've just carried me like I suggested in the first place."

"I should've ditched you back there and let you drown," he corrected her, about ready to do just that.

She fell silent again, possibly out of fear that he'd dunk her under again if she kept mouthing off, and Amarant concentrated on covering as much ground as possible, eating up the distance with long strides. By his estimate, it would take at least two more hours to reach the Outer Continent.

"If my axe rusts, you're paying to replace it," Lani complained after a time. "Do you have any idea what this thing cost me?"

"Just because it's expensive doesn't mean it's any good," Amarant responded.

"Like a guy with a couple of razorblades stuck to a piece of worn-out leather would know anything about the quality of a weapon," Lani spat.

"That fancy piece of wood and metal sure did you a load of good against the princess today," Amarant sniped back.

Leaving her to her fuming once again, Amarant studied their surroundings. He felt the ground under the water begin to slope upwards, and the moss on the cave walls was beginning to thin. He put Lani down, and sure enough, she could stand on her own. She opened her mouth to protest as he started moving again, but he cut her off.

"We're almost out," he said gruffly, climbing up the slope.

She snapped her mouth shut and followed him.

Finally, he reached the far bank and he climbed up onto dry land. He could see the sky outside the cavern's opening as he rounded a bend in the tunnel.

Lani hauled herself out a few moments later, squelching her way outside. Amarant was sitting in the sun, drying off, when she got there. She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat, then went about wringing out her clothes.

"This is the worst job, _ever_ ," she said with venom.

"This is nothing," Amarant snorted, wondering how someone like this chick had made it as a bounty hunter. "We deal in blood; what's a little water?"

Lani grimaced, but for once didn't comment.


	6. Alternative Thinking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's more than one way to get through Conde Petie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could be considered a sequel of sorts to my previous fic for this challenge, _Through Hell and High Water_ , since it continues the story of just what Amarant and Lani were up to between the fight in Fossil Roo and the kidnapping of Eiko in Madain Sari. Reading that is not, however, a prerequisite. This time, I decided to tackle Conde Petie, which they would have had to pass in order to _get_ to Madain Sari.
> 
> Speaking of _Through Hell and High Water_ , I commissioned a drawing of one of the scenes, [visible here](http://community.livejournal.com/amarant_/21052.html). Many thanks to [](http://thekeet.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://thekeet.livejournal.com/)**thekeet** for the amazing artwork!
> 
>  **Warnings:** Minor swearing.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 65\. Clever  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** Lani  
>  **Timeline:** Takes place after Zidane and Dagger get "married" but before Amarant joins the party.

Conde Petie was good for restocking supplies, eating a decent meal, and not much else, in Amarant's opinion. He'd been there before, a fair length of time ago, but only in passing. Honing his skills on the plains had been his long-term goal at the time.

Lani couldn't seem to stop laughing at him for his grudgingly-delivered "Rally-ho!" when they'd entered, but he was ignoring her, as he frequently did, and instead started asking around the village.

"Lot o' ootsiders lately!" he was told several times. "All o' them funny-lookin'."

Further inquiry revealed that, yes, one of the outsiders had been a blond guy with a tail.

"Joined with a bonny yoong lass, he did!" David Heavenguard said.

"'Joined'?" Lani echoed skeptically.

"Aye, joined!"

"They mean 'married'," Amarant informed her.

"Married?!" she yelped.

"Aye, tha's the word they were usin'. But they'll be havin' a lovely time at the Sanctuary by noo!"

"And where would that be?" Lani asked, but Amarant already knew. The dwarves spent most of their lives on this side of the mountain, but one time and one time only, they'd make pilgrimage to the other side – to the Iifa Tree.

That clever bastard.

"—an' that wee Pyntie-Hat joinin' wi' that strange marsh creature – what a sigh'!" Harold Pathknower was saying.

"It just goos tae shoo that love kin come in any form, tae anyone," Jenny Greeter added happily.

"So how do we get to this 'Sanctuary' place?" Lani asked, scowling.

"The oonly ones who kin make the pilgrimage are thoose recently blessed by the sun."

"And those would be...?"

"Honeymooners," Amarant deadpanned.

Lani stared at him, then at the dwarves.

"So you won't let us go after them?"

"Nay; ‘tis forbidden!"

"So what?! I'm trying to do my job, here! Those newlyweds are under arrest by order of the Queen of Alexandria!"

"Alexandria?"

"Ne'er heard o' it!"

Lani threw her hands up in disbelief.

"You're telling me that until I'm ready to get hitched, I can't do my _job_?!"

"Ye could wait fer them tae coom back," Helen Birdkeeper suggested.

Amarant smirked to himself and left the room, heading for the dwarves' small tavern. Lani stomped after him in a huff, plunking herself down next to him at the bar. They ordered drinks, then Lani turned to face him.

"Now what?" she asked grumpily.

Amarant didn't answer, so she went on.

"They're not _coming_ back, I'll bet. There's no way they'd return to someplace within the queen's reach; nobody's _that_ stupid. They're safe for now..."

Amarant knocked back his drink, maintaining his silence. She'd figure it out in a moment, and he wasn't looking forward to the imminent explosion.

"...unless we can sneak around them up the mountains, but that could take _weeks_..."

Amarant signaled the barman for a refill.

"And as usual, my partner in crime's got no input," she grumbled, swirling her own drink around in its glass.

"The answer's pretty damn simple," Amarant said roughly.

"What? I haven't got anyone to marry and I'm sure you don't either, what with your _charming_ personality..."

She fell silent, suddenly, and went very pale.

There it was.

"Y-You can't be serious," she sputtered, nearly dropping her glass. " _Us_ , get _married_?!"

"You got a better idea?"

"We... we could kill the guards and make a run for it..."

"Yeah, we could."

"You don't think they could catch us, do you?"

Amarant snorted.

"No."

"So we'd be home free!"

He shrugged, his mind elsewhere. That thief with the princess had made a very tactical move on them. Feigning a marriage to get clearance through the mountain pass was nothing short of brilliant. He could've beaten his way through by brute force, but instead he'd played pacifist.

It was the same strategy he'd beaten Amarant with.

He scowled.

"We're doing the wedding," he said, cutting her off in the middle of a sentence.

Lani gaped at him.

"You must be joking..."

"We do it the locals' way, we can probably convince them to hold the princess here on the off-chance that they _are_ idiotic enough to come back."

"...Are you _seriously_ the Flaming Amarant?" she asked incredulously. "Since when do people in our line of work take the moral high-road?!"

Amarant shrugged.

"Whatever we do, we'd better do it soon. The longer we sit here, the more chance that lot has to disappear somewhere."

He supposed they could just knock out the guards instead of kill them. That wasn't his style, though. Fights were only as good as the fighters; picking on non-combatants was boring as well as dishonorable.

Which left the wedding, which he really didn't want to do. Those seemed, however, to be their only options.

Unless...

"—I'm far too young to get married and far too beautiful to marry just _anyone_ —"

Amarant stood abruptly, chucking a handful of gil on the counter to cover the cost of their drinks, then headed for the door. Lani, predictably, followed after him.

"Please don't tell me you actually want to go through with this," Lani begged, jogging to keep up with his longer strides.

Amarant wasn't listening to her, though. He had a plan, and it was better than both other options. Faster, too, which was good, because every second they stayed here was another lost opportunity to take on that damned ape, and another second that he had to listen to Lani's bitching.

"Hey, isn't this the way to the mountain path?" Lani asked, perking up. "So it's going to be my plan after all—!"

She yelped, cutting off her own tirade as Amarant grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. That accomplished, he broke into a run, headed for the bewildered-looking dwarf guards, Lani screaming furiously the whole way.

"W-wait!" Richard Watchman yelled, but Amarant continued barreling towards them.

Amarant Coral _never_ lost a game of chicken.

The guards dove out of his path, then tried to give chase.

"Only the joined kin goo tae the Sanctuary!" Matthew Watchman pleaded.

"We're eloping," Amarant informed them over the shoulder not occupied by his flailing accomplice.

"We're _what_?!" Lani shrieked, trying to kick him.

"But ye've not received the blessin' o' the sun!" they cried, falling further and further behind.

Amarant smirked and pointed at the clear, sunny sky above with his free hand, and then they were out of earshot. He ran as far as the first fork in the path, then dropped Lani on her ass.

"Problem solved," he said.

Lani clambered to her feet, face flushed red with fury and embarrassment as she brushed off her clothes. Amarant turned and took the path on the right, headed away from the tree. There were footprints on that one.

For once, Lani took her sweet time catching back up. When she finally did, she fell into step next to him and gave him her deadliest glare.

"I want a divorce."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick thing - if Amarant's actions toward Lani seem overly familiar here, it's because I have deduced that if you are not fast enough for Amarant Coral, he will MAKE you fast enough by whatever means he deems appropriate. I figured, if his response to Zidane asking him to catch a gargant is to grab Eiko and Vivi and climb up the Iifa Tree with them himself, then his response to Lani not being able to run as fast as him would be to grab her and run. But it does strike me as amusing that two fics in a row, that's been how he ended up solving his problems. Poor Lani.


	7. Two's a Crowd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the straw breaks the camel's back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the third and final part of my little saga regarding Amarant, Lani, and their hunt for Garnet's pendant. Reading the previous two is not a prerequisite, but I did mean them to all go together. This one starts with the two of them reaching Madain Sari before the party does, and goes right up to Eiko getting kidnapped.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Minor swearing.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 43\. Moogles  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** Lani, Quina, Eiko and her moogles  
>  **Timeline:** Takes place from the time the party's at the Iifa Tree to Eiko getting kidnapped by Lani.

Upon leaving Conde Petie and the Iifa Tree behind, it didn't take much work to determine that the only place the princess and her guards could have gone on this side of the plains was the pile of rubble by the coast. However, it seemed they'd somehow been eluded again.

"What a dump," Lani said in disgust. "Are you _sure_ they came here? I still think we should've gone to the tree."

Amarant looked around; the place seemed deserted. He started further into the ruins, hearing – but not acknowledging – Lani's exasperated sigh behind him.

There were definitely signs that people had been through the place recently. There were fresh footprints, the cloying scent of incense hung in the air, and, as they entered the more intact part of the village, they saw smoke curling up to the sky from one of the dwellings to their left.

Amarant paused as something in his peripheral vision caught his attention.

"Are you actually going to fight this time, or what?" Lani asked, then nearly collided with him. "And why'd you stop?"

"Shut up," Amarant said, pointing at what he'd spotted: a red pom-pom trembling over a stone slab.

Lani's eyes followed his signal, and she blinked.

"A moogle?" she scoffed. "That doesn't tell us anyth—"

"Thought I told you to shut up," Amarant ground out, even as Lani stalked over to the creature's hiding place.

At the sound of her approach, the moogle let out a startled "Kupo!" before taking to the air. It ducked through the doorway of the house the smoke was coming from. Their cover officially blown, Amarant went after it, intending to end this whole charade as quickly as possible.

Lani skidded to a halt beside him as he stopped in the next room – which had no walls – both of them with their weapons drawn.

The sight that greeted them was not at all what he'd been expecting.

Five moogles hovered around what Amarant vaguely recognized as a Qu. One of the moogles held a fishing pole; indeed, the stove just inside the doorway had fish cooking over it. There was no sign of the tailed kid, the princess, or the black mage. Amarant straightened from his battle stance, returning his claws to his belt.

One of the moogles motioned at them shakily.

"T-that's them, kupo!" it squeaked.

"More hornless humans," another said, clearly displeased.

The Qu's clown-like face turned to regard Lani.

"I know you," it said. "You loud lady that attack us in Fossil Roo."

"I am _not_ loud!" Lani protested.

"So they aren't friends of yours?" the moogle holding the fishing pole asked.

The gourmand shook its head.

"Never see other before, but lady not friend. Both threat if they together."

"What do we do?!" the tiniest of the moogles asked, hiding behind the Qu's back. "Lady Eiko left with the others..."

"What 'others'?" Lani asked, stepping forward, her axe still raised.

"Zidane say they go to Iifa Tree, be back for me," the Qu said.

Lani whirled on Amarant.

"I _told_ you—!"

Amarant watched the gourmand.

"So they're coming back?"

"No can leave me here," it answered with certainty.

"They left you to guard the place, eh?" he asked. "You don't look so tough..."

Lani took his words as her cue to approach the group. The moogles yelped and ducked behind the Qu's bulk.

"If not invited, is bad manners to come at mealtime," the Qu said, sounding cross. It produced a gigantic fork from behind its back.

Lani grinned.

"Definitely won't need your help on this one, Red."

Amarant grunted and leaned against the wall to watch.

\------------

The battle was short-lived. The Qu'd put up a decent fight, but it was no match for Lani in a one-on-one scuffle. She'd knocked it out, and the moogles were fanning its face, trying to resuscitate it.

Lani swung her axe over its prone form, scaring them off.

"Now what?" she asked, glancing around the dingy little open-air kitchen. "Who knows when they'll be back to check on the place..."

She ducked into the room at the foot of the stairs where the moogles had been fishing. Amarant, meanwhile, put out the fire in the stove and helped himself to the fish the Qu'd been cooking.

"Oh ho ho!" Lani chortled, rushing back up the stairs. "Look what I found!"

She held her prize – a rather sizeable gemstone – aloft for him to see.

"It looks just like the one the princess has on around her neck," she informed him. "They must have come here for its twin. No wonder they left a guard with it!"

"What'd they leave it for, then?" Amarant asked. "Would have made more sense to keep it with them. I'll bet they didn't actually know it was here."

"Maybe not, but then why leave a guard? Not a very good one, but... Hey! Leave some of that for me!" she added, motioning at the fish.

"Might not have been a guard at all," Amarant commented, polishing off the food in question, much to Lani's obvious displeasure.

"What was it, then, a babysitter for the moogles?" she scoffed.

"Speaking of..."

Amarant glanced up just in time to see one of them skitter away to the other side of the house.

"With any luck, they'll go tell the princess to get her royal butt back here," Lani said, buffing the gemstone with the cuff of her glove.

Amarant was inclined to agree, if only because that would mean he was finally done with this ridiculous job and he could collect the bounty and move on. He walked off in the direction they'd originally come from, and Lani was, thankfully, too preoccupied with her newfound treasure to bother following him. He returned to the center square, then took the path to the right. A large but crumbling wall stood at the far end. The moogles had relocated to that area, and they all clustered together in the doorway as he approached.

"T-this is a restricted area, kupo!" one of them said a bit feebly. The others nodded emphatically.

Amarant twitched one hand towards his claws and stepped toward them. They fled. He passed into the 'restricted area,' and the incense smell increased tenfold. It was coming from a large censer in the center of the room. He stood still and gazed around.

"What is this place?" he muttered to himself, moving closer to the wall to study the images painted on them. They didn't look like any Mist monsters he'd ever seen, but he didn't know what else they could be.

Before he could contemplate further, he heard a little girl's voice shouting from the direction of the village entrance.

"I'm home! I'M HOME!!!"

It seemed that the moogle who'd run off had returned with their prey. He leapt up onto the far wall and then to the ground behind it, waiting. Several minutes passed, and he wondered if Lani had decided to intercept them on her own. He was about ready to go check when he heard footsteps fast approaching.

"Hey, Red!" Lani's voice carried to him from the other side of the wall. "They're back, and I've got a plan! We're going to trade them this kid they're traveling with for the princess' pendant. ...Red? I could have sworn he came this way..."

Amarant didn't respond, intent on waiting for Lani's "plan" to play out. He already didn't like the idea. The little girl whose voice he'd heard earlier started arguing with Lani, and he scowled. Hostages weren't his thing. If it'd been him, he'd have just challenged the group to a fight. Lani was just overcomplicating matters. He'd known that partnering up for this job had been a stupid idea.

As the princess and her cohorts finally showed up, he decided that it was about time he called it off.


	8. A Child's Logic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zidane may have been willing to just accept Amarant back into the group after his stunt at Ipsen's Castle, but the rest of the group requires a little more convincing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings:** None.  
>  **Theme + Number:** 99\. Silence  
>  **Characters/Pairings included:** All eight party members appear.  
>  **Timeline:** Takes place directly after Ipsen's Castle, but before they go to the four shrines.

Amarant's return to the group upon exiting Ipsen's Castle had been awkward at best. And that was putting it lightly. All of them but Zidane were guilty of trying to avoid him despite the airship's close quarters, and they acted like they were all waiting for something monumental to happen. It was severely irritating, in a way that was completely different from the normal level of annoyance he was used to feeling towards them. He'd have been lying if he said he'd been prepared for it; he hadn't intended to come crawling back in the first place. But here he was, and he was already regretting it.

This was twice, now, that he should have died and was instead spared by that fool Zidane.

Humiliating.

He'd been lurking in the engine room when Zidane poked his head in and announced that dinner was on. He'd entered the main cabin and silence had immediately descended over the rest of the group. The others grabbed their food and sat in a semi-circle on the floor; Amarant sat a ways off from them, leaning back against the wall and contemplating whether or not he felt like going somewhere else.

Eiko threw down her utensils suddenly, startling everyone.

"This _stinks_!" she declared to the ship at large.

Quina put its hands on its hips.

"You no like, next time _you_ cook!"

Eiko paled.

"I didn't mean the food!" she apologized. "I meant..."

And here, she waved her arms frantically.

"...this whole atmosphere. This _silence_! Like everyone's afraid to talk to each other."

"I don't think anyone's afraid of anything," Zidane said. "We're all just tense, thanks to all the work we've got to look forward to with these mirrors..."

"That's not it and you know it!" she argued.

"What is it then, brat?"

Everyone froze as Amarant spoke. It was the first time he'd really said anything since coming back. He looked at them each in turn, waiting for someone to answer.

"I'll tell you what it is!" Eiko snapped when nobody else came to the rescue. "Just because _you_ got all grumpy on us and tried to leave, everyone's acting like they've got to tiptoe around! Why can't we just go back to normal?"

"Eiko..." Dagger said quietly, but she seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Eiko's right."

Everyone turned to stare at Vivi. He fidgeted nervously with his hat.

"I-I'm just saying," he added, "it's a lot nicer when everyone's talking together."

Kids. Amarant was mildly surprised to hear the two youngest members of their group basically asking everyone to drop their concerns and accept him back again. They seemed the least-likely candidates – really, he'd expect that kind of thing from Zidane, but not from them. Perhaps he didn't know these people as well as he'd thought. Zidane wasn't the only one who worked in a non-linear way, apparently.

"Nothing's really changed, has it?" Eiko pressed. "We're still a team."

"That's not the whole of it," Steiner spoke up, looking stern. "There's been a breach of trust."

"What trust?" Eiko asked incredulously. "It's not like it was a secret that Amarant never really liked us; he's been saying so ever since he _met_ us."

She turned to look straight at him.

"I'm right, right?"

Amarant didn't answer. Something about the way she'd phrased it didn't sit well with him. It should have been a very simple answer: no, he'd never really liked them. He _still_ didn't really like them. But something kept him from confirming or denying it.

The six-year-old got up from the floor and stomped over to him, placing her hands on her hips and scowling.

"Well, at any rate, _I_ forgive you," she said haughtily.

"I didn't ask you to," he growled.

"Well I do anyway!" she persisted. "You came back. You didn't have to. You could've killed Zidane when he went looking for you, but you didn't. That's good enough for me!"

"Y-yeah, and you've helped us a lot, too," Vivi said, apparently determined to aid Eiko's cause. "Without your Chakra ability, we'd have run out of Ethers ages ago, and—"

"—What Vivi and I are _trying_ to say," Eiko cut in, rolling her eyes, "is that just because you don't like us very much, it doesn't mean that you're a total jerk."

Were they trying to console him, he wondered. That was certainly a bizarre and completely unwelcome development. And he'd thought being spared by Zidane again was humiliating... They'd just redefined the word. The others were all watching him and the two kids with rapt attention. Amarant crossed his arms, maintaining a stony silence.

Freya finally broke it.

"Oh, for gods' sakes, Coral; learn to take a compliment," she snapped, and the tension officially broke as Zidane stifled a laugh.

Amarant raised an eyebrow. Zidane continued to snicker, and Dagger, too, seemed to be having a hard time keeping a straight face. Steiner looked un-amused. Eiko returned to Vivi and gave him a triumphant smack on the back that nearly sent him face-first into his plate.

Quina looked around at them all, giving a short nod.

"Meal time is time for forgetting problems," the gourmand said sagely.

"Quina's exactly right!" Eiko said, sitting down and taking a big bite of her dinner.

Satisfied, Quina went back to eating its own meal as well. The others eventually followed suit, and Eiko sidled up to Zidane before motioning toward the empty space on her other side.

"C'mon, Amarant; you made your choice. Now come be a proper part of the team!"


End file.
